I maintain that the only way to understand the Cheney Administration's refusal to get out of Iraq is to realize that, for them, Iraq has been a smashing success. Their interests are being advanced. The death and destruction is somebody else's problem.

Cheney's reaction, which I saw the other day on tv, just infuriated me. Even Nixon knew enough not to act as if it didn't matter that the American people opposed the war---he just denied that it was true and claimed we were all just his enemies. He claimed the good solid Silent Majority was with him. Cheney obviously sees the American people as beyond contempt and not even worth lying to.

In accordance to the principles of Doublethink, it does not matter if the war is not real, or when it is, that victory is not possible. The war is not meant to be won. It is meant to be continuous. The essential act of modern warfare is the destruction of the produce of human labor. A hierarchical society is only possible on the basis of poverty and ignorance. In principle, the war effort is always planned to keep society on the brink of starvation. The war is waged by the ruling group against its own subjects. And its object is not victory over Eurasia or Eastasia, but to keep the very structure of society intact.

I'm just trying to think what would've happened if we had a deputy PM or senior cabinet member who ever said that. Gone. Down. No way back.

Obviously we don't know each other, but thank you for once again confirming what my intellect and intuition have been telling me for years. I kept thinking about Orwell so many times, and over-riding what I instinctively knew just to convince myself that Britain and America could NOT be this bad.

Well, we're not yet, but we've just lived through an administration that began with more expectations than any since Attlee's, and ended with more contempt and apathy than any since... there is no appropriate analogy for ten years of smug right-wing sanctimony dressed up as the 'real thing'.

I mean, sometimes I think we are in an Orwellian experiment. You mean this nation just tied itself to the most inept leader the world's biggest superpower has ever had? Not for humanity but for the sake of big business? I mean, really? Really?? No way.

(yes, I know 'inept' hardly covers it)

'The way to fight... is with history and truth'(Deborah Lipstadt, 1998)

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